The three words people confuse — and attackers exploit

Most "encryption" you'll meet in the wild is nothing of the sort. Nail these three and you already beat half the field:

Encoding (Base64, hex) — reversible by anyone, no key. For transport, not secrecy.
Hashing (MD5, SHA) — one-way, no key. Can't "decrypt" — but weak inputs crack.
Encryption (AES, RSA) — reversible only with a key. The real thing — until the key/password is weak.

🎯 Your crypto range

Your lab ships a folder of artifacts to break. Open your Live-Lab and start:

cat ~/crypto/README.txt
ls -la ~/crypto/

🎯 Challenge: Read the range README. How many artifacts are there, and which are encoding vs encryption vs hashing?

Show solution

cat ~/crypto/README.txt

Encoding: c1 (base64), c2 (hex), c3 (rot13). Hashing: hash.txt (MD5). Encryption: c4 (XOR), secret.enc (AES). Each breaks into a FLAG{...}; verify with fh-check.

⚖️ Break only the lab artifacts, or data you own. Cracking others' secrets without authorization is a crime.

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What's in Cryptography for Hackers

1. Encoding ≠ Encryption ≠ HashingFree
2. Encoding — Base64 & Hex🔒 Encoding
3. Classical Ciphers — ROT13 & Caesar🔒 Ciphers
4. XOR — the Heart of Crypto🔒 Ciphers
5. Hashing — One-Way, But Not Safe🔒 Hashing
6. Symmetric Encryption — AES & openssl🔒 Encryption
7. Asymmetric Crypto & TLS (Intuition)🔒 Concepts
8. Final Exam — Clear the Crypto Range🔒 Certification

Continue in the interactive course reader →

Encoding ≠ Encryption ≠ Hashing

The three words people confuse — and attackers exploit

🎯 Your crypto range

Liked it? 7 more lessons are waiting.

What's in Cryptography for Hackers